🚀 go-pugleaf

Chris Marston wrote:
> 
> Erik P. DeBenedictis wrote:
> >
> > Is it possible that Java will become the Prolog or PL/1 of the 90's?
> >
> > Erik DeBenedictis
> 
> When was the last time you saw ProLog featured in Time magasine? ;^) I
> think it already has too much inertia & dev community support behind
> it to meet that kind of grisly end. Besides, Java is actually
> _useful_....

Good question, and it does have an answer. In the USA, Prolog was an acedemic
language that never attracted a wide following.

Japan, however, based its "fifth generation computing initiative" on Prolog.
The idea (in both Japan and the USA) was that Japan's equivalent of DARPA
would -- in one fell swoop involving several billion dollars
of research funding -- take away the lead the USA has in software and
bring it to Japan.

This happened 10-15 years ago.

It was a really big deal in the USA at that time. While I don't recall exactly,
I believe the issue got the cover of Time-type magazines a half-dozen times
as well as generating several hundred less-prominent articles in the popular
press.

I believe my comparison between Prolog and Java is worth considering, although
I will admit there are differences. Japan is not the USA, and Silicon Valley
(home of Netscape and Sun) is administred very differently than DARPA or MITI.

Erik DeBenedictis